J.R.R. Tolkien taught Anglo-Saxon as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.
He held the professorship from 1925 until 1945. The position focused on the language and literature of early medieval England, especially Old English texts. Tolkien’s scholarly expertise shaped both his teaching and his fiction, giving his invented cultures the depth of historical languages and traditions.
After 1945, he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, a position he held until his retirement in 1959. His academic career therefore extended beyond Anglo-Saxon specifically, though Old English remained central to his work.
Tolkien’s scholarship included influential studies of Beowulf, Middle English texts, and philology. His professional interest in how languages change also inspired the construction of Elvish languages such as Quenya and Sindarin. He was not simply a novelist who invented fantasy names; he was a trained philologist who built fictional histories through language.